Run slower on my own LCD TV?
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Run slower on my own LCD TV?
If you're playing in SD, good god yes it's slow - some games are laggish in FMV sequences and you might notice some slowdown in-game. TBH, I've not had a PS3 since launch, so they might of patched it.
PAL and NTSC don't apply anymore in the world of HDTV's. The HD resolutions are standardized, so no more black bars, and all current-gen games are made to run in 60Hz, including European games. If you're in Europe and stuck with a 50Hz TV, you'll be lucky if your games run at all. Many games nowadays require a 60Hz TV. So European PS3 games run exactly the same as their US counterparts, and you'll have no trouble playing European imports on your US PS3.
Even if you have it running in SD it will not run slower! a lot of pal PS3 games don't even support 50HZ anymore. All Pal game started supporting 60HZ in the last generation.
doomguy is right, I can't find any decent English writeups about PAL-60 right now, but thanks to it, 60Hz and PAL SDTVs indeed aren't multually exclusive. Pretty much any recent game and any CRT TV made in the last 15 years should support it meaning the annoying 50Hz issue SHOULD be a thing of the past now.
60 hz or not, an NTSC PS3 will not play a PAL game in standard definition as the resolution is not supported by the console. Fortunately, Sony has a strict requirement that all games be at least 720p, so as long your set is HD, you're good.
Dreamcast was the first to support 60Hz in PAL. I can't remember how Nintendo and Microsoft handled things bitd but PS2 games ran slower and in the wrong aspect ratio with huge letterbox borders on top and bottom.
With both the PS2 and the Gamecube, a 60Hz option was something that developers could choose to add themselves. Gamecube titles often showed the 60Hz option only if you held two buttons on the controller during startup. Many early PS2 did not have a 60Hz option, but it became a more common feature later during the PS2's life. The Xbox had 60Hz as a system option, so it applied to all games, which is a much better solution IMHO.
Thanks guys now if only I could play import PS2 games on my PS3 i'd be in business.
Just to clarify, 60hz PAL and NTSC are still not the same thing. The color encoding in Pal 60 is still PAL, thus, while the picture might be the right size and not rolling, it'll still be black and white on an NTSC TV.
Of course, this doesn't apply to HDTV.
^ True. PAL-60 has the same resolution and refresh rate as NTSC, but the color signal is the same as PAL. You'll only notice the difference when you're using a composite or S-Video cable though. If you use an RGB cable you won't see the difference, because then the color signal is neither PAL nor NTSC, but RGB. Annoyingly, the PS2 can only output PAL and NTSC, not PAL-60. The Xbox, Gamecube and Dreamcast all output a true PAL-60 signal.
Not that any of this matters, since the topic is about HDTVs. :p
Right, but I just wanted to clarify because I saw this thrown around a lot when I was importing my Amiga. Lots of people said "oh, the amiga has a built in software 50-60 switch, so you're good" but it needs to be stressed that you also have to convert the color information, and that's the tricky part. Especially since most pal->ntsc converters (and vice versa) only accept an interlaced signal, and those which will accept a non-interlaced signal don't advertise it. It's pretty hard to find one that works.
Of course, I did. The Atlona CDM-660, so if you ever need to go PAL on an NTSC tv through hardware, that's what you need to buy. works with absolutely everything.